Harding schools sued; ACLU says district discriminates against immigrants, children of immigrants

The school districts, scattered throughout 10 counties, all require forms of state-issued identification that require Social Security numbers or valid immigration status as a condition for students to enroll in school, a requirement that New Jersey law clearly forbids, according to a release issued Thursday by the ACLU.

Harding Superintendent Matthew Spelker issued a response Friday morning via e-mail.

“The Harding school district does not admit or deny pupils admission to our district based upon immigration or visa status, nor do our enrollment forms suggest anything to the contrary,” he said.

“If the ACLU had concerns about our registration materials it should have contacted me or our board attorney and this matter could have been easily resolved. It is very unfortunate that the ACLU has decided to file a lawsuit and waste precious taxpayer resources that belong to our children,” he said.

The suit against the Harding district was filed in Superior Court in Morristown.

“School districts may not deny students an education based on their immigration status or their parents’ immigration status,” the suit states.

“By requiring a form of identification that is only available to residents who have Social Security numbers or a valid immigration status in order to register a child for school, the school district denies an education to students with parents who are undocumented immigrants. It also discourages immigrants from attempting to enroll their child in the school district,” the suit states.

“The exclusionary policies are particularly disturbing in light of the climate of fear in immigrant communities, along with the number of schools that appeared on previous ACLU-NJ audits of discriminatory policies,” the suit states.

“New Jersey’s state Constitution calls for free public education, and that applies to every single child – no exceptions,” said ACLU-NJ Staff Attorney Elyla Huertas, who filed the lawsuits. “In a state where one in five residents is foreign-born, at a time when our president has made the exclusion of immigrants a key part of his policy agenda, it’s more important than ever for every school district in New Jersey to meet its obligations, both to New Jersey’s families and to the Constitution.”

The 12 districts, which include one charter school district, asked for state-issued identification that can only be obtained by someone with citizenship or a Social Security number.

In addition to the Harding district, they include:

• Northern Valley Regional High School District (Bergen County)

• Bellmawr School District (Camden County)

• Sterling Regional High School District (Camden County)

• Winslow Township School District (Camden County)

• East Orange Community Charter School (Essex County)

• West New York School District (Hudson County)

• Sea Girt School District (Monmouth County)

• Watchung Hills Regional High School District (Somerset County)

• Montague School District (Sussex County)

• Cranford School District (Union County)

• Allamuchy School District (Warren County)

State statutes, the New Jersey Constitution, and the U.S. Constitution, through case law settled since 1982, all forbid school districts from denying education to public school students based on their immigration status or the status of their parents, according to the suit.

The ACLU-NJ sued only the 12 districts with the most restrictive policies, but several others impose improper requirements that hinder enrollment by immigrant parents.

“Together, these policies add up to a quiet, daily injustice that allows discrimination to metastasize and that tells families, incorrectly and unconstitutionally, that they can’t access the fundamental rights they’re entitled to,” said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha.

“Public schools exist to educate all of a community’s children. The stakes are too high to allow these unlawful and discriminatory policies to continue, especially here, especially now.”

In 2008 and 2014, the ACLU-NJ conducted audits of the state’s 560+ school districts to identify problematic enrollment requirements. Five of the districts sued also appeared on the 2014 list of offenders, and two of those districts – Watchung Hills Regional High School District and Montague School District – were identified as having discriminatory policies both in 2008 and in 2014.

Sterling School District, Bellmawr Public Schools, Sea Girt School District, Watchung Hills Regional High School District, and Montague School District were on the list in 2014. Northern Valley, Watchung, and Montague were identified has having unconstitutional enrollment policies in 2008.

This is not the first time the ACLU-NJ has sued districts to ensure that all students who live in the district have access to school, regardless of immigration status. In the last four years, the ACLU-NJ has sued 13 districts that had policies similar to those challenged in this suit. According to the ACLU, in each instance the case settled after the district agreed to change its policy.

“The ACLU-NJ calls on all of New Jersey’s school districts to remove unlawful barriers from their registration forms, and requests that the state Department of Education devote resources to ensure that school districts follow the constitutional and statutory mandate to educate all children regardless of immigration status,” the release states.